Today’s visit is to go shopping in the center of Rourkela for sports equipment and to visit a local school that I have never visited before, the INDO GERMAN KINDERGARTEN School.

 

Rourkela is a steel town and there is a giant steel plant here where many local people work. It was made long ago by the German and Indian governments. Many Germans came to Rourkela to build, manage and work at the steel plant and that meant that German families moved here and played an important part of Rourkela’s history. Today to my knowledge the Germans are gone and the Indians run everything at the Steel Plant.

I am not sure of the structure of the INDO German school or how it is funded, it has the German name but all the children and teachers are Indians. The school is Managed by the Daughters of the Cross Sisters with Sister Reshma being the school principal.

 

After a short drive the Sisters and I arrived at the school. This school was very pretty. Each classroom door exited to a very pretty decorated open walkway in front of the school. The smaller walkway to the front gate had beautiful gardens on both sides of the walkway full of red roses and beautiful flowers. It was very impressive to see.

 

There are many small children in this school with about 6 classrooms. Each classroom had chairs and desks with lots of art work on the walls in each classroom. The students were very busy with activities. Off to one side was a nice playground for the small children. I visited each classroom and met every child. I also met each teacher in the classrooms and we took photos in the flower garden together. It was a very nice first visit to this school to meet everyone, something that I will not forget.

 

After our visit with Sister Reshma and the staff and the children at the INDO German School the Sisters and I got back in the car and drove to downtown Rourkela to a local sports equipment store called Ruby Sports to inquire about buying some kids sports equipment for 2 local schools.

 

During the ride it was very common to see cows at the side of the road or even in the roadway. The cows are viewed as sacred in the Hindu religion and they are all protected. Hindu people honor the cow. The cows are a revered animal of Hinduism and they represent Mother Earth as a source of goodness.

 

After a nice ride we arrived at Ruby Sports in downtown Rourkela. Near Grihasthi, Beside Shiv Market, Jalin Complex, Rourkela -1

When the Sisters and I walked into the local shop the people behind the counter were all very friendly and said hello to us and asked what we were looking for.

 

We told them a little about Children are Angels from Heaven and our work to help a few schools and children in Rourkela and that we were interested in soccer balls, cricket bats, pins and balls , badminton sets , hockey balls, paddles and paddle balls and other general sports equipment such as jump ropes for 3 local schools.

 

The owner was really taken back by all of this and was very interested in our Angels story over the many years that we had been doing this work.

 

Somehow it became a fun time buying everything from the store. When the Sisters and I asked to see one item. The next thing I know many of the items were put on the counter to see in different price ranges. In the end the counter was full of sports items for the schools. The owner was a great guy along with his workers. It was really a fun , interesting time buying everything.

 

In the end the owner gave us a very good deep discount for everything that we had bought at his store.

 

But the owner did not stop there. He gave us a big bag to carry everything in for free but what he did next shocked me and the Sisters.

 

As I wrote earlier in the mail, the owner and workers were very interested in what our work was about. And I showed them our website and Facebook page links. Then for some reason I told him about Dinesh, the boy who is Handicapped and can not play with the sports equipment that we just bought from him. I even showed him Dinesh’s photo. The photo all of you saw in one of my last mailings.

 

The owner was so taken back by Dinesh and his story about Dinesh being handicapped the owner asked me how tall is Dinesh I said about 6 inches shorter than me. The owner of the shop had his worker reach up to a shelf and take down a brand new beautiful heavy warm sports coat and pants to give to Dinesh from him at no charge the next time that I see Dinesh.

 

I am telling you again all of us were shocked. What an act of kindness from the owner at Ruby Sports. It was something that I will never forget. A few hours of shopping turned out to be a fun time and a wonderful story to always remember something that I or the Sisters never expected.

 

Ruby Sports was excellent and it will now always be my go to place in Rourkela for any sports equipment that we need to buy. Great store, Great People, Great Prices what more could you ask for.

 

My only regret was not getting the owner’s name.

 

After the car was loaded up with everything we made our way back to the Convent to call it a day.

 

Thanks for all your help and support for Angels. I hope you like the stories of my trip and that you learn a little about the world that all of us live in.

 

Ray O